Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis is a puzzle game and the sequel to the 2004 Game Boy Advance game Mario vs. Donkey Kong. This time, the focus is on the Mini toys created by the Mario Toy Company; along with the Mini Mario toys returning, more new toys were added for this game including the Mini Donkey Kong, Mini Toad, and Mini Peach toys. This game also marks the first appearance of Pauline in the ''Mario'' franchise since the Game Boy Donkey Kong game. The game's title is an allusion to the Beatles song "March of the Meanies". The game features include Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, use of the touch screen, and use of the buttons. Plot Mario's Toy Company returns with a commercial promoting the new Super Mini Mario World, which is an outdoor amusement park centered around the Mini Marios, Mini Peachs, Mini Toads, and Mini Donkey Kongs. A crowd of Toads is shown watching Pauline and Mario about to cut the ribbon to open it. One of the Mario Toy Company's employees, Donkey Kong, is in the crowd. He immediately falls in love with Pauline and rushes to her with a Mini Donkey Kong to give to her, but Mario hands out a Mini Mario. She chooses the Mini Mario, so Donkey Kong is heartbroken and breaks down a sales post of Mini Marios, even crushing one with his feet. He then heads toward the elevator, grabbing Pauline on his way and knocking Mario to the floor. As Donkey Kong heads toward the elevator, Mario gets up and tries to get to the elevator, but he is too late to rescue her. Donkey Kong brings Pauline up to the roof of the building. Mario doesn't know what to do until two Mini Marios come to offer help. In the ending, Mario finds Pauline safe with tons of presents in a room on the roof. Donkey Kong looks sorry for what he's done, when a Mini Mario races across the floor to meet a Mini Donkey Kong. Pauline picks up the Mini Donkey Kong and kisses it, making DK happy. Toads appear and everyone waves, leading into the credits. Gameplay Unlike the Game Boy Advance predecessor, Mario plays absolutely no role in this game; he is only seen in the beginning of each floor, and before each boss fight and in the final boss fight and following cut-scene. Instead, the task is to control the Mini Mario toys through eight diverse floors of nine levels each to reach Pauline. At the end of each floor is a boss battle with DK. There are 240 Minis in all - generally, there are more minis in a level as the difficulty increases (going as high as 8 in a level called 8-3). This change in game-play laid the foundation for the two Mario vs. Donkey Kong games that followed on the DS. Wi-Fi By going on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service, you can make Courses, then put them online for other people to download. Once someone downloads your course, you will get points, the more points you get, the more items you will be able to use in making courses. You can also rate each course to give the creator more points. Characters *Mario *Donkey Kong *Pauline *Mini Marios *Mini Princesses *Mini DK's Pauline In the original Donkey Kong arcade, Mario had to save a girl named Pauline. Ever since that game, she hasn't appeared in anything besides remakes, until now. Critics *Gamespot - 8.2/10 *IGN - 7.0/10 *EGM - 6.5, 7.0, 8.0/10 References to other games *''Donkey Kong'' - Pauline makes a return to the Mario series. Certain levels are based off of ones found in this game. *''Super Mario Bros.'' - World 5 uses the castle music from this game. Also the main theme is remixed several times. *''Donkey Kong Country'' - Music from this game is featured in the jungle levels. *''Mario & Wario'' - Very similar gameplay to this game. *''Super Mario 64'' - Music from this game is featured in the castle levels. *''Mario vs. Donkey Kong'' - The predecessor of this game. The Mini Marios are back and several music is reused from this game. The concept of guiding the Mini Marios debuted here *''Donkey Kong 64'' - Several of Donkey Kong's voice clips are recycled. *''Mario Power Tennis'' - Several of Donkey Kong's voice clips are recycled. *''Donkey Kong Jungle Beat'' - Several of Donkey Kong's voice clips are recycled. Trivia *The credits show 3D pictures of some of the Mini poses and enemies, likely as a throwback to the similar credits pictures in the first Mario vs. Donkey Kong. *When players close and open their DS (putting it in and out of sleep mode), Mario has some things to say, such as "Hey, come back here, you big-a monkey!", "Let's play again!", and "I love this game!" This feature was also used for the sequels, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! *A promotional browser game was released in 2006 called Mario vs. DK 2: Cannon Kaos. Category:Mario games Category:Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games Category:Donkey Kong games Category:Nintendo DS games Category:Virtual Console games (Wii U, Nintendo DS) Category:2006 video games Category:Mario vs. Donkey Kong games Category:Nintendo games Category:Nintendo Software Technology games